Driving in Italy - Turning Tuscan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Going Native - page 112

Driving in Italy
N ow that I drive in Italy almost every day, trying to remember those first experiences behind
the wheel takes a bit of effort. But not all that much. Traumatic experiences have a marve-
lous way of imprinting themselves indelibly on your memory.
On our first trip to Italy we had leased a little French econocar for three months. It was
brand new and got great mileage, but accelerating from 0 to 60 took about fifteen minutes.
This wasn't such a big deal on country roads and city streets, but taking Fifi out on the free-
way was another story altogether. We'll get there in a minute.
On two-lane roads in Italy (one lane each way) no one ever pulls over to let the cars behind
them pass. Even if you're a tractor-trailer driver transporting a bulldozer and can barely
crawl up the hills, you'll drive along placidly pretending there's no one behind you. Even
if there are lots of perfect spots to pull over so the 50 cars behind you could go by, the law
doesn't require it, you will never do it and no one expects you to. So, when you're stuck
behind some big lumbering monster on a two-lane road patiently waiting for him to let you
pass, you'll wait until hell freezes over, or until he decides to turn off the road. Your only
options are to pass him, stay behind him and suck up the fumes, or go have a coffee some-
where and come back later.
On multi-lane roads in Italy, however, everyone moves to the right whenever a faster car is
coming down the lane behind them. In America we kind-of, sort-of do this—except for the
people who don't. There are the drivers who drive the posted speed limit in the far left lane
and could care less if you want to go faster. There are the Little Old Ladies in Florida who
go directly for the middle lane to avoid merging traffic and drive 60 mph while the younger
generation passes them ruthlessly on the left and right.
In Italy no one passes on the right, and everyone religiously observes the injunction for
slower traffic to move to the right. It is so much a part of expected behavior that the cars
speeding along in the far left lane hardly slow done at all as they bear down upon you be-
cause they know that you will be getting over. And they take for granted that you've seen
them coming since everyone in Italy always drives with one eye on the rear-view mirror.
Americans check their rear-view mirror regularly when changing lanes, but other than that
it's somewhat haphazard. So it takes a little while to develop the habit of always checking. A
very little while… The traffic in front of you has slowed down to a crawl because of a little
putt-putt that is even more underpowered than your own vehicle. You check that the lane to
the left is clear, and you pull out carefully. You're accelerating from 30 to 40 to 50. You pass